How does Discrimination Impact on Political Behaviour and Attitudes towards Immigrants? A Social-Psychological Perspective

The negative treatment of individuals on the grounds of idiosyncratic characteristics such as gender, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation etc., affects the lives of millions. Yet it is only recently that more systematic scholarly attention has been devoted to the effect of discrimination on peoples’ political behavior and attitudes (e.g. Mattila and Papageorgiou 2017; Oskooii 2015; Ocampo et al. 2018; Page 2017; etc.). The current manuscript contributes to the former line of research by studying the effect of discrimination on different forms of political participation and peoples’ attitudes towards immigrants. The theoretical framework draws heavily from the social identity theory (SIT) which emphasizes that individuals’ behavior and attitudes are shaped by identification with one’s own group (in-group) and comparison with other groups (out-groups) (e.g. Tajfel and Turner 1979; etc.). Employing longitudinal data from European Social Survey (ESS) that includes more than 28 countries for the period spanning from 2002 to 2016, we find that eligible voters who are discriminated against are less likely to turn-out to the polls compared to people who are not discriminated against. Furthermore, results also show that discrimination is not always a hindrance to political engagement but actually induces some forms of collective action: Victims of discrimination are more likely to demonstrate, sign a petition, contact a politician or boycott a product compared to people who are not victims of discrimination. The second part of the analysis shifts the attention from behavior to attitudes by showing the effect of discrimination on citizens’ attitudes to immigrants’ contribution to the economy, culture and every day life. Results show that citizens who have been victims of discrimination on the grounds of characteristics other than race/ethnicity/nationality, rate immigrants’ contribution lower compared to citizens who have never been victims of discrimination. Οn the other hand, citizens who have been discriminated on the grounds of race/ethnicity/nationality, rate immigrants’ contribution higher compared to citizens who have never been victims of discrimination. Lastly, citizens who are discriminated against on the grounds of characteristics other than race/ethnicity/nationality, rate immigrants’ contribution lower compared to citizens who are discriminated against because of race/ethnicity/nationality. This last finding implies that discrimination against certain social groups can potentially trigger negative attitudes towards other social groups.